Embedded Files
Enhancement Activities
Thanksgiving Luncheon
November 25, 2016
This was our second Thanksgiving together. All the groups came to school for lunch time. The tables and the room were beautifully decorated. Before the luncheon, they were asked to tell us the meaning of Thanksgiving. Some students volunteered to say what they were thankful for. Right after that, two students said a prayer in English. Below are some pictures of the celebration.
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Visit to Maker Space
November 11, 2016
We visited the school Maker Space in another part of the city. The main goal of this field trip was to give them a glimpse of the possibilities of learning while playing games or creating things. In the bus they started their journey exploring vocabulary and collocations related to MAKE and DO and questions about their childhood memories that also used this vocabulary and explored vocabulary related to personality. When they arrived at the Maker Space, they did three different activities. The maker space was organized into 03 rotating sessions with two tables each. Below is a short description and pictures of what happened in each station.
Station 1 - Osmo for Personality Vocabulary
In this station, students played a kind of hang man game against each other. In this game, at the clue given by an image they had to throw letters to be read by the software and form words. All the words were related to vocabulary for describing personalities. Students really had a lot of fun and learned the words. When it was time for class, they were readier to assimilate the lesson.
Station 2 - Ozobot - Robots Knocking Down Make/Do Pins
In this station, we used Ozobot. Ozobot is played with little robots that move along a line drawn by the user or users. We had students play a bowling game using collocations of DO and MAKE with other words or phrases. Students worked in pairs and drew the trajectory of the robot according to the phrases or words attached to the pins. The robot was label "make" or "do" and they had to knock down the pins accordingly.
Station 3 - Making Their Own Memory Game
In this station, students had some hands on creating cards with collocations. They had to produce a pair of cards that would have matching collocations. Some of the examples were "have + first pet" or "meet + first boyfriend/girlfriend". They drew or wrote on the cards, and at the end, tey played a memory game. The cards were given to the teachers and will be used in future classes for language practice. This was a very interesting activity because they work on something very meaningful to them.
Final words and some images
It was a wonderful day and a chance for students to get a glimpse of the potential maker activities hold for education. Here is a video with some of the pictures we took in the event.
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American Elections
November 04, 2016
As the election in the USA approaches, we decided to explain how the process works in the U.S. A. and compare their system with ours. To do that, students saw two videos in English that explained how the process is set up. The video was paused from time to time and they had to explain to their peers what they had understood. Once this was done, students explained it to the whole class. If they had doubts, another student would explain. If they still had questions the teacher would answer them. Step by step they compared American elections with the ones they have in Brazil.
These are the videos they watched.
After the presentation and discussion, they voted to choose the class representative to make a speech in the graduation ceremony. They voted in a Google form and the result was announced immediately.
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Halloween
October 28, 2016
To celebrate Halloween, we reviewed and taught vocabulary related to the occasion. We showed students a ppt presentation that presented and tested their knowledge of vocabulary. Here is the presentation.
Some students wore costumes and we had a thematic snack. Here are some of the pictures we took.
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Volunteer work and professional development.
October 21 and 28, 2016
One thing that we try to focus on in the program is to prepare students for a professional life. So, we bring professionals to talk about a given field in the market place. Being a librarian is one possibility we thought would be worth exploring. Therefore, we encouraged students to set up a book corner in their schools. We invited one of our librarians to give lectures and teach students the basics on librarianship. We had two encounters in which Maguimar (one of our librarians) gave workshops on how to catalog books and label them. As a wrap, students elaborated projects to be carried out in their school libraries. The ideas ranged from book corners to treasure hunt ideas. In the end, they did not only learn about how libraries work but also thought of ways of encouraging teenagers and young learner to develop a taste for reading. Here are some pictures of students working together in these two occasions.
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Exploring natural disasters.
September 23, 2016
As we were learning about natural phenomena, students saw two different movies and were asked to do some comprehension and some discussion tasks after watching the segments. The first one was the Hollywood movie Heareafter. After watching the trailer, they had to write down what some of the characters were doing when the wave hit.
For the discussion activity, they watched a segment featuring major natural disasters in recent years. They had to take notes of the phenomena, where it took place, and the consequences or devastation it had caused. Once they were done, they discussed their responses with their peers. Finally they were asked to think about what of those disasters were common in Brazil.
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Making poster for a reading corner.
September 02, 2016
For the end of the year volunteer work, we are are collecting donations to set up reading corners in public schools. Students were asked to create posters advertising this reading space.
Here are some samples.
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Describing and discussing accessibiliy issues
July 10, 2016
As part of a lesson on means of transpotation and commuting, we decided to explore the issue of accessibility. First students learn how to talk about how they move around and what means of tranportation they use. Right after that, we went on to explore the challenges people with disability face on their commute in big cities. We elicited the hassles they might face. Next, we showed them some videos. Here is one of them.
The next step involved having students create a fictional character with a disability and write a paragraph about the troubles he or she had moving around in his or her daily life. After doing this, students were asked to create videos narrating their stories. Some students got images from the web and some others drew their stories using the app Showme. Once they had the images, they created a video using iMovie. See some of the videos produced by the students.
Describing and and making homes
February 26, 2016
Before coming to class students watched instructional videos depicting rooms and furniture within. Upon arrival in school, they used play dough to craft pieces of furniture assigned to descriptions of rooms stuck to different tables. This was a good maker activity that helped them put hands and mind to work to learn new vocabulary. In class, they described their own dwellings to each other.
After reading a model paragraph about their teacher's dream house, they wrote a para in a collective Google doc about their own dream places. Here is a sample paragraph.
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Tiny houses as a solution to reduce environmental impact
March 04, 2016
As we had also talked about tiny houses and their importance due their minimal impact on the environment, they were asked to draw their dream homes.
After watching a video about tiny houses which described its furniture and advantages, students talked about its furniture and the fact that they cause less environmental impact. As homework, they were instructed to design their own version of a tiny house that catered to their needs. In class, they presented their projects to peers describing what features and furniture they chose to add. After working in pairs, some students present their renditions to the whole class. It was a very interesting project that did not only got them to use the language they had just learned, but also got them thinking about how and where they live.
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Human activity, natural disasters, and human impact
March 11, 2016
After learning about cities and their component parts such as buildings and other constructions, students were asked to do research about changes caused in the environment in general caused by natural disasters and human activity. They brought their work to class and shared with their peers by writing paragraphs about the information they collected. In their texts, they drew comparisons on how given regions were before and after a given accident or natural disaster.
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Celebrating Saint Patrick's day
March 18, 2016
To celebrate Saint Patrick's Day the group saw a video about the holiday before coming to class. Here is the video .
In class, they used the iPads to copy some questions about the life of Saint Patrick and how the holiday is celebrated in Qr-codes stuck on the walls. Once they had copied the questions, they were given a text and were told to look for the answers. In the break time, teachers involved in the program served pistachio ice cream and taught them to make shamrock shake. They just loved the idea.
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Democracy/ Gender / US History/Civil Society
April 08, 2016
In a lesson that students were learning how to use past tense of verbs, they learned about the lives of some music celebrities. We took advantage of this context to have them explore the life history of some inventors, innovators, and athletes that were not always talked about in mainstream media. We gave them choices that were representative of minorities in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. They chose to write biographies of Jesse Owens, Hedy Lamarr, and Nikola Tesla.
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Celebrating Cinco de Mayo
May 06, 2016
For this holiday, students watched a video about it at home and in class. Teachers talked about it's meaning and did some comprehension checking activities. At the end of the class, they had a chance to catch a glimpse of Mexican food. They could try a "make it yourself" taco salad. We adapted to nacho chip bags which were they topped with ingredients of their choice. The purpose was to teach them something about of the value of the Mexican heritage in the USA and also teach them to how craft a very tasty and simple meal at home.
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Opportunities to study abroad
May 06, 2016
Students had a 40 minute lecture given by Rafael Duarte. He gave them precious tips on studying abroad. He mentioned the cultural impact of this experience and also mentioned some steps one should take to get scholarships. After he was done, students asked questions. Here are some pictures taken during his talk.
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Ethnic Tolerance
May 20, 2016
To raise students awareness on the issue of ethnic tolerance and cultural diversity, we decided to interview an immigrant an a refugee in the United States. The immigrant Linda Barros was interviewed through recorded video. Students recorded questions to which she later replied. The interview was rich in terms of diversity because Linda has an extensive traveling experience and her family is typical of the diversity one finds in the USA. Finally she is committed to promote a diverse world view in the way she intends to raise her daughter.
The interview with the refugee tried to focus on ethnicity and tolerance. The person interviewed was an Iranian refugee the US. Students watched a video about the culture of Iran and its main tourist attractions. Next I gave them some background information on his status as a refugee when he immigrated to the United States. After that, they prepared questions that ranged from topics such as his favorite foods in the his new country and at his home country. They also asked about prejudice he had faced back home belonging to a religious minority and in the USA as an immigrant. We used Whatsapp for the interview and the teacher walked around allowing students to ask the questions they had previously prepared.
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Cultural exchange and digital media
Brazil & El Salvador
Project in progress
In the Tesol 2016 International Convention and Language Expo, I happened to meet an EAP teacher from El Salvador. His name is Raul Agreda. We had a very fruitful exchange of ideas. Upon my arrival in Brazil, Raul suggested that his students could write letters to mine. I found that the idea was interesting and his students wrote the letters. Seeing that it would take too long to have this exchange through snail mail, he decide to scan the letters and send to me. After receiving the letters, I posted them on separated Google docs and gave the links to my students to reply. From this a collaborative project was born. So far, our students have written about their countries and cities in general. Now they are writing about their daily meals. In the future, we plan to explore new media such as audio and video to enrich this cultural exchange. Here is a sample of what we have done so far. We are planning to present the project at the next Tesol Conference in Seattle in 2017.
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